KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Listing Lessons (Part 1) Developing Your Core Marketing Strategy

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

Summary:This episode is the first installment of a practical series focused on mastering listings. It lays the essential groundwork, teaching agents how to build a powerful and repeatable marketing strategy from the ground up. Listeners will learn to move beyond the basic "3 P's" (Put it on MLS, Put up a sign, Pray) and develop a comprehensive plan that defines a target buyer, selects the right marketing channels, and creates a compelling property narrative. This is a foundational guide for any agent looking to create a system that wins listings and gets them sold.

Welcome to the Real Estate Survival Guide, the show that teaches realtors how to create a thriving real estate business. What is up, guys? Welcome to today's episode of the Real Estate Survival Guide podcast. I am so thrilled to have you with me and excited for this week's episode. As I shared last week, we are going to talk over the next few weeks about listing lessons. And of course, last week I kind of shared why these lessons are important and they matter. and this week I'm going to talk to you about developing your marketing strategy. And you might say, I don't even know what the heck of marketing strategy is, and I would encourage you, you need to know.

And so, as I stated last week, what I'm sharing with you is not like theory anymore. I mean, I think I try to bring you guys stuff that I think is relevant. So it's not all theory. You know, sometimes it's theory, hey, here's what you could do or should do. and other times it's factual, like actual stuff in my business. So the next few weeks is going to be fun because I'm going to share with you the actual strategies I used to get every single one of my listings over the past few months. So I'm excited.

And today you will understand the importance of a marketing strategy and why you need to have one and all those kinds of things. So, and I will share with you guys the property information. So you are welcome to go check. check it out. Of course, once a house sells, it's public. So if you want to look at this house, you can go and look at 105 Carriage Run Road in Lincoln University, PA, 19352. So sold at the end of June was one of those, you know, a bunch of listings that I had and I'm very, very thankful. All right. So listen for now and you guys can go and, you know, look at the property later. You can

obviously see that I, you know, and you can just pull it up on Zillow or in your MLS if you're in our MLS, you know, but you can see I did the professional photos. You can see I did like some Twilight stuff. You can see I did some drone photos and things like that. But there is a point of the marketing strategy and I'll kind of get into it in a second. And then we'll kind of talk about the results at the end of the episode. So I met with these sellers originally last September, right? So we are coming up on almost a year, actually. So this was an EXP referral. And so I kind of met with them and thought, oh, I'm going to get it.

I'm going to do well. I'm going to get the listing. And I will say this, and I do not mean this in a cocky way at all. But when I go to a listing appointment, I don't often lose. I don't often not get the listing right there. But so I originally met these people in August. Okay. So last August, almost a year ago, they reached out.

to me, they were an EXP referral from someone who was at the company at the time, and we ended up meeting, you know, I think the end of August, first week of September. Now, again, not to be cocky, but when I met with them, I really thought I had it in the bag. And I don't think I came across this way. Like, I don't think I came across cocky or anything like that, but I really felt confident I was going to get the listing. It was already an EXP referral. They had interviewed me. They had felt really good about me. And so I really felt like I'm going to get this listing. Now, I'll be honest with you guys. This one actually was kind of frustrating for a little bit because we met in early September,

okay? And then, you know, I gave them some information. I'm even looking at my email now, you know, we exchange a few emails, September 3rd, September 4th, September 12th, September 17th. And then I got to be honest with you guys, they, I did not hear from them. They basically ghosted me. And so, of course, there's more to this. Otherwise, this wouldn't be a successful.

story at all. But here is where it gets interesting. So they did not reach out at all. They did not say a word. So after we met, again, late August, early September, somewhere in there, in between all those emails, we met. And it looks like the last one I sent to them on September 17th was some information about, you know, some vendors, handyman, things like that, landscapers. I did not hear a thing. called, texted, emailed, followed up, smokestack, all the things did not hear from them. So, you know, I kind of was actually frustrated because I was like, okay, like, I must have done something wrong to not to not get the listing. So honestly, I was frustrated with myself and I kind of did a lot of soul searching like,

hey, what did I do wrong? You know, and again, sometimes it's not you. It just kind of happens. But, okay, so here's where we get to the real meat of the story. So I have heard nothing from them since September 7th. And then they email me on April 4th of this year. In that email, they said to me, and I'm going to direct quote it to you, they said, John, we are rethinking our listing agent.

What kind of marketing plan would you propose for this home at 105 Carriage Run Drive in Lincoln University? So guys, I knew I had an opportunity. I didn't know why the agent that they did pick didn't work out. I didn't know why they didn't pick me from the beginning. I really didn't. And I never, you know, sometimes I'll ask. I never asked. But here is what I need you guys to understand.

And I'm going to read exactly what I said to them. So I want to know, like, let's actually pause for a second. And I want to know you realtors out there listening to this. If someone said, hey, we are not going to go with our current agent, we are rethinking the agent. What kind of marketing plan would you propose? What would you say? I really hope you would say something good.

but some of you, I know, have absolutely no plan. You do not know what you would say. And so this is why I want you to develop your marketing strategy, and that's why it's lesson one in what we're talking about over the next few weeks. It is so important to have a marketing strategy. Let me tell you guys, I, and you know this, we've talked about it, I hate email. I hate email, I hate it, I don't like communicating via email. but they emailed me at 9.50 a.m. on Thursday, April 4th, and within an hour, I had sent,

okay, actually 1057, so just over an hour, you know, a little under an hour and a half, I had this entire long email written out to them. So I'm going to read to you exactly what I said, and by the way, this wasn't something I came up with on the spot. This was something I had been doing. This is something I was doing for listings. So I said, hi, you know, sell, are so great to hear from you. I'm sorry that the chosen listing agent might not be a fit. Hopefully I can help. I love the question you asked about my marketing plan because this is an area that I think is so important for listings and I've worked hard at doing well. This is why I invest time and money into marketing your property. For instance, here are a few of the ways I will market

the property at no additional cost to you. And then I said, each time I have a listing, I pay out of pocket for professional photography, videography, drone footage. And then I said, you know, especially with as beautiful of a home and lot as you have, video walkthrough, open houses if requested, dozens of flyers and graphics that go out on various places such as email list, social media, places like Nextdoor, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, as well as to my audience of followers on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. And then I said, I also leverage each offer against each other, which I will explain further at the end of this email. So that part wasn't the marketing strategy, but I wanted them to really understand what I meant. And, you know,

marketing strategy means different things to different people. For me, I leverage it so much on social, so I wanted them to understand. So I said, I have learned how to leverage social media so that the properties I am selling are sold quickly. I believe we discussed a little bit of the following information in person, but our team's social media presence has only grown since we met in September. Our team's combined social media presence where we promote our business is now receiving over 100,000 organic views per month, which certainly help get more eyes on each potential listing that we put on the market. Then I said, along with this, I've continued creating relationships that lead to success as 100% of my clients have left a positive review after the

transaction. And maybe most importantly, at this moment to you, 98% of my listings in my career are sold within seven days. And then I said, like, obviously I can't guarantee the property will sell within seven days, especially as the market shifts, but leveraging my knowledge and the social media and the network I have can lead to success. And then I went on to explain, like, how I leverage the offers against each other. And we can, you know, we'll dive into that more over this time. And we've talked about leveraging offers against each other, but I'll talk about how I've

done that for certain listings over the next few weeks. but basically I made it pretty clear that my job was to work hard for them. My job was to do the social media, the photos, video, drone, open houses if requested, flyers to get their home sold. And I then just included a few listings where I talked about leveraging offers against each other and what that can do for them. And I just said, I hope this information is helpful. I hope it gave you the information you need to make a decision.

If you'd like to discuss further, I'm happy to have a phone conversation. or in person anytime. You're welcome to call me. Thanks for reaching out. So here is what I noticed, guys. It would be great and easy for you guys to say, oh yeah, I have a marketing strategy, but then to not actually do anything. So here's the deal and here's the kicker. After I sent that email, within 15 minutes, the seller followed me on social media. They went to my Facebook personal page and followed me. And again, that's what. why having so much of that stuff public is helpful because without being my friend, she wouldn't have seen it, but she was she was following me and she saw it.

So I knew, I knew that I kind of said to myself, well, John, hope the social media stuff has been good because she just followed you and now you're going to either earn the listing or you won't. Okay. So this was on a Thursday. Okay. And just so you know. And I actually said, sorry guys, earlier in the episode, I said I forgot to ask why they

didn't pick another agent. But now I remember because so fast forward, right, I send that email on a Thursday. Thursday, April 4th, the next Tuesday, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to call. So I gave them a call. I said, hello, you know, potential seller. This is John Shookman, EXP Realty. I just wanted to check in. I would, I'd love to help you.

And I would love to know what I can do to earn your business, right? Try to try a little bit of a different approach. Didn't want to be like bull in a China shop, right? And their response was, well, you actually have earned our business. The potential seller said, I've been watching you on. on social media over the past few weeks. I love that you guys have a team. I love that you work together. I love that you promote each other's listings. I love the traction you get John on your social media and the comments and views and replies. I love seeing that. And so she said,

so we're going to list with you. And so we got, you know, now again, we had a 30 or 40 minute conversation about what that looked like and all those different things. But here's the kicker, guys. I then asked, you know, I was remembering now, I basically asked, hey, well, I'd love to know, you know, I didn't say, well, why didn't you hire me in September? But I did say, hey, so why did you choose to, you know, go with me now? And they said, now this person, by the way, who said this is not 20 or 30 years old or 40 years old. Now, I'm not saying she's like 95, but I'm just saying she's a little older, right? Certainly not in her 30s or 40s.

And she basically said, and this is a direct quote, guys. She said, we really like what you're doing on social media, you know, all the things that I kind of mentioned, the team, you know, know stuff Madison does, et cetera. And she said, I think it is impossible now to sell a home without social media. I think it is impossible now to sell a home without social media is what she said. Isn't that wild? And again, not a 20 or 30 year old. This was a relatively older person, right, retirement age. And she saw the power of social media. And here is the deal, guys. First of all, I got the listing. It went well. Now, we had some hiccups along the way for sure. But it is so important, guys, to have a marketing strategy.

I really want you guys to know, and I'd love to hear from you. What would you have done if you got that email? Do you have a strategy? Would you have been able to answer the leverage you get, how you leverage offers? Would you have been able to tell them how many views you get on social media? I bet for a lot of you, the answer is no. And that's why it is so important to have a marketing strategy. So here's the other part of this.

They trust me to get the home sold. I appreciated it very much. They listed the home aggressively, guys. So probably I kind of felt like the home was like a $5,000 home. Okay. And they said we want to list at $5.50. Now there was a home in the area that was listed at five, two of them actually. And I'm like, and they, ours was a little nicer, but not like $50,000 nicer.

So, so here's the deal. Now, we only ended up getting one offer, right, because it was priced higher. but my marketing strategy and the social media led to people seeing it, and we got a buyer, leveraged the connection with the realtor to get the home sold. Not only that, guys, and again, not trying to toot my horn at all, but here's what I want you to hear. I even pulled it up in the MLS today. So if you're in the MLS, go ahead and look at it.

So our property sold for $550,000. A home just down the street that we had actually looked at to comp ours was listed at 500,000 and it sold there at the end of June. Actually, the same day on the 28th, that home sold for $485,000. And there was one a couple blocks away that sold, a very similar home sold at $49,900, so basically $500,000. So guys, do you want to know why a marketing strategy is so important? First of all, it wins your listings. And that's why I want you guys to have one. or develop one today. Here's the other part.

It gets the home sold for more money. So two comps that we looked at and really thought ours was closer to like 515, 520. Two homes that were comps, my listing sold for 550,000. They're sold for basically 500,000, right, $499,9, and 485. So now, guys, now what I do is I leverage that. I go to the neighborhood and say, hey, yeah, you know, this is kind of what I do, the marketing strategy that I have. And in the neighborhood, home number one sold for $499, home number two sold for $4.85.

And our home, which is very similar, sold for $5.50. So $50,000 and $65,000 above the other home. So I know this episode's a little longer, but I really wanted to like read the exact email that they sent me and read to you, my exact response. I want you guys to have success in your business. I want you guys to get more listings this summer. I do, right? And one of the ways that you can do that,

that you can get more listings this summer and just over your career is by developing and having a marketing strategy. When I got that email from the seller, I didn't say, uh, uh, uh, oh no, I got to make something up. No.

I mean, honestly, the part that took the longest was just, texting, you know, writing back to the email because I don't like, you know, writing emails and they take me forever. But the easiest part of that was literally say, oh yeah, I got you. I know exactly how I'm going to market at your property. I'm going to do all these different things, right? Photo, drone, video walkthrough, open house if you wanted, all the flyers, leveraging offers against each other. Here's all the things we do. And when you have a marketing strategy, I promise you guys, you will be more confident. You will get more listings. And, you know,

when you get more listings, you will have more success. So thank you guys so much for being with me today. Excited to have you on this series sharing listing lessons from, you know, these listings I've had this summer. Hope you enjoyed part one. And I hope you can take some things in this episode to develop your own marketing strategy. If you have any questions or need help, feel free to to reach out to me. But thanks for listening and I'll see you guys on our next episode. Thanks for listening to the Real Estate Survival Guide. If you enjoyed this episode, we would appreciate it if you'd leave us a review on iTunes. It helps others discover the show. Thank you so much and we will see you on the next episode.